New Chinese New Year sets

[Bruce N H]

Hi all,

Via [url=http://bricksfanz.com/new-sets-inspired-by- ... -revealed/]BricksFanz.com[/url], LEGO recently announced some new sets at the 3rd China International Import Exhibition, which I assume is China's version of Toy Fair. As with the last few years these will be available at the start of the year, in anticipation of Chinese New Year (they will be available January first in Asia but a couple of weeks later worldwide). There's a Monkie Kid set*, an adorable Duplo set, and most importantly for us, Spring Lantern Festival and Story of Nian. Nian is a mythological lion monster associated with Chinese New Year - the story is that at the end of the year the monster came out to attack villages and eat people, but was driven off by fireworks, which pretty much explains the set. 2021 is the year of the ox in the Chinese Zodiac, which is why there's an ox statue in the park in the first set and a fig in an ox costume in the second. Anyway, neither of these is a castle set, and the figs are modern (though some of the torsos could fit in an Asian medieval setting), but like previous Chinese New Year sets the architecture could all fit very well in an Asian-themed castle. Plus there's the monster, which is quite fun. BTW, there are several banners with Chinese script - I'd be curious if anyone here reads Chinese to know what they say.
[url=http://bricksfanz.com/new-sets-inspired-by- ... -revealed/][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50572119 ... a87d_w.jpg[/img][/url]
[url=http://bricksfanz.com/new-sets-inspired-by- ... -revealed/][img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50571245 ... c61b_w.jpg[/img][/url]

*BTW, I'm not sure if I've complained about this here before, but I'm so disappointed by the whole Monkie Kid series. The Monkey King is from a classic Chinese book from the 16th century, so when the theme was first announced I thought it would be an Asian-themed castle/fantasy series, but instead it's a mashup of futuristic vehicles and mechs and annoying colors.

[Bloodwarrior3]

These sets have some great new parts. The koi fish printed tiles, the minifig head with the printed ox. The 2 new colors for banana's. There are a few torso's that can be used. The sets themselves look very nice. The new Monkey kid sets have some nice minifigs with spider prints and a 1x1 round tile with a spider on it.

[Bruce N H]

Ooh, good eye. I hadn't looked closely at some of the parts before. Those are nice. I also see this dragon-head piece as an architectural detail on the gate in the Lantern Festival set:
[img]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50580550 ... 3a03_w.jpg[/img]

Is that new? It looks like it could be used as the hilt of a sword, or maybe be used as part of a small brick-built dragon, or just, as here, as a detail piece on buildings. I want a bunch of those.

Bruce

[TheLordOfBricks]

Yes, I'm seriously considering trying to pick these up, great looking sets and some awesome new parts.

[ffilz]

These sets have some great new parts. The koi fish printed tiles, the minifig head with the printed ox. The 2 new colors for banana's. There are a few torso's that can be used. The sets themselves look very nice. The new Monkey kid sets have some nice minifigs with spider prints and a 1x1 round tile with a spider on it.

What bums me out about the Monkey Kid sets is they have a premium price and they all feature a vehicle so less bang for the buck for me despite having some cool minifigs. My dream would be in a few years for some family to bless me with their kids Monkey Kid collection... (Yea, that's never happened, the only thing I've been blessed with is a box of 60s Lego that was our friend's childhood Lego, her kids Lego is going to the grand kids...).

Chinese New Years has been a big thing for us since our eldest was 1 and she attended her first Lion Dance and loved it so I have been picking up all the sets (got the first, the New Years Dinner, from a seller in Taiwan before they decided to make them available in the US) and with that I've decided that Frank's Castle World will eventually have a Chinese/Japanese themed section. I haven't decided how anachronistic it will be with Ninjago City as a major piece... I will de-modernize it at least some. I'm bummed at some of the sets I didn't get over the years, but will have plenty to make a big section. Monkey Kid could provide some great stuff for it though...